Short On Time
by Psieks
Summary: The change in life on the meteor has led to Karkat' becoming disillusioned. After losing friends and chances, he depends on Dave and the Mayor to hold him together.
1. Chapter 1

Gamzee disappeared into the vents long ago. Kanaya and Rose never leave each other alone. Too many of Karkat's friends changed or left existence forever on this godforsaken meteor. Only two beings seemed unchanged by the stresses. chalk roads that radiating from his body, Karkat emits a frustrated groan.

Within the lines of Can Town, normalcy reigns. The Mayor assist noble citizens on their daily commutes. Always full of energy, his feet pitter patter along the roads he made while he redistributes cans. Once each citizen has reached its destination, he sets about redrawing smeared lines. For the township to function, all transit systems must operate at maximum capacity. Dave faithfully trails the Mayor with extra chalk for when the need arises.

The Mayor and the Knight of Time, the only two who never change. No matter what happens, they'll stay the same. Both wear their regular expressions, a gleeful grin and a placid smirk, neutral faces, familiarity, comfort. There's no guessing what would happen if they ever made like the others.

Road repairs finish and Dave carries the handful of chalk through the roads to a single, bright rainbow road that leads to an empty bowl. Two empty Tab cans stand guard and he sets the chalk in the honored vessel. Nothing is more important to Can Town and its citizens than what it is built on. He waves good naturedly to the cans and bows out. Wiping chalk dust from his clothes, he glances at Karkat.

Karkat sits and pulls his arms tightly around his legs and torso, placing his face between his knees. A small hand gently taps the top of his head between his horns. It's the Mayor. Sparkly, white eyes blink slowly and there's nothing Karkat can do but try to put on a happy face. His efforts are a clear failure, judging by the sound of Dave snickering behind him. His best bro's arms loop under his and heave him upward. Now in a standing position, he stretches out a loosely curled fist. The tiny carapacian gladly bumps his sharp fist against Karkat's. Dave's hands release Karkat's arms and repeats the gesture. With the daily work on Can Town complete, the rest of the day is free. Free is only relative, though. He's free to go to his room. Is the only place where none of them will intrude.

It could never be a real room for a troll. The only furniture in the place is absurd and human. There's an absurd human bed, absurd human food, and the absurd human soporific called alcohol. If change weren't so big a deal, he'd probably join Rose for an absurd human glass of the stuff. She seems a lot happier with it; at least, when Kanaya isn't trying to make her quit.  
"Are you even listening to me? You need to snap out of it, man. I've been running my mouth for like three minutes while you're about ready to check out. I invited you to help with Can Town because we're worried. The Mayor always looks happy but he can tell. I'm sure as hell he can." Dave's forehead creases and when Karkat looks for eyes behind the shades, he catches a sickening glimpse of his reflection instead.

Dark, puffy circles line the bottoms of his eyes and the scleras are a watery, pale, lemonade yellow. Dave's hand takes hold around his and the patchy, gray skin barely gives. "Fuck, Dave. I didn't need you two getting out of character. You're the only ones that never did it. Go back to being cool. Get the Mayor to take a vacation and upgrade Can Town's systems. There's no way you guys can change. Its not fucking happening." He breaks the connection and takes off at a brisk walk. Dave doesn't try to stop him and he increases his speed until he's running, feet pounding the ground and echoing on the empty walls. The door to his room on the meteor stands ajar and he crashes through it.


	2. Chapter 2

A sticky, sweet scent lingers in the air. Her scent had changed to become almost indistinguishable from that of his former moirail. The telltale signs of Terezi being present at some point bring tears to sting at his eyes. Her efforts to hide the caliginous relationship with Gamzee were fruitless and hurt more than if she could be upfront about her feelings. Love is being able to let go.

Any chances he'd been given before and during the session were entirely blown due to him being completely obtuse. Letting her move on is the best he can do now. Karkat, the relationship expert among his friends, had too much experience with breakups. Why try again?

He slumps onto the bed and find the spot that smells the most like Faygo and the girl he and save Dave both loved at one point or another. It's not fair. All those sweeps ago Sollux had warned him about playing the damned game. Of course, I'm true embarrassing past self style, he hadn't listened. Without the game, none of these complications would have come into play. Going back and warning himself would be nice.

Karkat begins mumbling to himself in a nonsensical manner that graduates into soft murmurs. "I hate myself. I most definitely hate myself for this. I've lost my mind and time will run out before I know it. There's no way to make anything work..." He rolls over and pulls his legs onto the bed. The smell of the Faygo is vaguely intoxicating and lulls him before reality jolts back into his head. "Everything is the opposite of what it should be. I'm spinning words into a pretty picture like Kanaya should be doing if she'd just leave Rose alone!" He yowls out the last words and ends in a broken cry. Everyone had managed to make something from this. Everyone but him.

The problem is so obvious, but it's as unfixable as his blood pigment. If he could just get over the change, learning to accept it quickly rather than over time... Time is what works against him now and what did from the start. Sollux died the first time they ran out of time. There were countless other casualties, all because he couldn't keep track of and manage time. Running out of the stuff made him lose his mind.

In the bed, he quietly quakes. Why was Terezi in here anyway? Every conversation to his recent recollection had been forced and uncomfortable. She'd never come off her own volition. Gamzee probably made her do it. More tears awkwardly slide over his face. Some of them pool in gaunt hollows while others catch in the eye nearer the bed and draw more years. A few reach the covers and stain them with a watery pinkish tone.  
Exhausted, his thoughts drift into daydreams.

Once somewhere there had to be a good timeline where the session was successful. He and Terezi were matesprits. Gamzee never sobered up, never killed, and never started a black romance with Terezi. They'd stayed where they belonged, on Alternia.

Helping at Can Town took a toll, the drift into daydreams drifts further until it hits the realms of sleep. Karkat is fortunate to find himself alone in the dream bubble he wakes in. No interruptions will break the brooding. Maybe things can be sorted for a short while in here...


	3. Chapter 3

He's far out, further than the furthest ring if it's even possible. No dead alternate selves will haunt him. Any haunting will stem from something he brought along. Sleep may have been a foreign thing during the game session, but now it's Karkat's drug to get through the day.

_Alone at last,_ he thinks. No Daves, Terezis, Gamzees, or friends - deceased or otherwise. _Even though I've grown out of my weak ignoramus with an incredibly illogical superiority complex phase into who knows what, I'm still not very good at things. Expressions, mostly. I'll never be good at that probably._ He begins walking along the ground, which is barren and unforgiving on his bare feet. Somehow, his shoes had made a disappearing act when he wasn't looking.

Jagged rocks pierce his feet as he continues on his path. At one point, he comes to a gorge with no bottom that can be seen. Karkat picks up a bloodied stone and out of curiosity, tosses it in. There's no sound that returns and he gives up. the gorge is unimportant, a waste of time. _It's just like me._ He sits with his legs dangling precariously over the edge.

Inky depths draw him closer, almost like a stare he's compelled to meet. Many lame comparisons later, a vaguely upsetting theme is set with an obviously depressing tone. There's no numbness or apathy. It's plenty of feelings, all feelings, but there are no words to describe any of them. Not in English; not in Alternian.

The blood clots and rippling pressures guided by an unseen force soothe his upset feet. It's relaxing and his body warms when the sensation moves to his back and shoulders. A sudden hit of drowsiness overwhelms him. Is it possible to get this tired in a dream bubble? It didn't feel like he'd been asleep in the real world for very long... Maybe it's just an effect of the darkness and its hypnotic trance. The phantom massage is just a symptom of that - so is the drowsiness. It's nothing more than that.

Karkat stretches and the dream bubble reality shifts around him, carrying him down the cliff in the same way that a feather floats down from a tree when a bird is molting. Somewhere, Lord English probably just knocked out some poor alternate timeline friends. Another group is double dead but his drowsy state keeps him from dwelling on the tragedy.

Even as he comes to a rest, there's no end in sight for the gorge. Small alcoves along the way pass through until he comes to rest in one. It's like where a bird would build its nest, sheltered from any normal elements. The soothing feeling never left and here, he could just go to sleep. Pressure intensifies, probably a result of finally relaxing. This point in sleep is the reason he never wants to wake up for the day.

The sandstone walls blur between being rock and rugged and resembling the cinderblock color of his room on the meteor. His eyelids fight between drooping and forcing themselves open. There's not a good way to wake up. That's the thing about it. Leaving dream bubbles is a drag while getting in is more of a rip. the transition to wakefulness but also sleep ends with the realization that the motions his back never once stopped. They'd been something from the real world that carried over. They'd happened on this side of reality.

"Did you enjoy your nap?" Dave huskily asks before tenderly wrapping his arms around Karkat. The massage is over, but the feelings linger for minutes afterward.

"Why did you come in here?"

He laughs softly and pulls closer, scrunching the fabric of his shirt between slender fingers. "You were upset and needed a little something to cheer you up, man. I'm just the deliverer." His breath is humid in the dry air and beads with sweat on his neck. This is all the last thing needed. He'd just berated himself over romantic failure, but he finds himself with every thought flying away as Dave's lips find a place in the nook behind his ear and brush the skin, trailing down his neck without actually planting a kiss.

In this moment, all of his angst didn't exist. It never did. In this moment, the past had ceased to be a reality. Now is the time to be new. Karkat turns his head with parted lips and catches Dave's. They share a kiss and things are right. They'd change just like everyone else did. The change, hated for so long, couldn't be bad if it gave him Dave. He'd never thought in depth about carrying on a romance, but the fantasy remained. He'd never let it go further without a push, but this is the push. The future is unlocked by the Knight of Time.


	4. Chapter 4

"God you're a wreck. You were just laying there shaking, all tight in the everywhere like you were bracing yourself agsinst something." The majority of his face is buried in Karkat's hair, inhaling the scent of the highly stressed troll. Between words, he plants tender kisses down his jawline to his collarbone. "I don't even know what to say. When I tried talking things out with you in the hall you were so not okay. It scared me, but I already made it pretty clear so I'll shut up. We're going to have some serious cuddles in here. You pick the dress code. "

The covers are kicked off of the bed hastily by Karkat, but no clothes are removed. It was pretty warm on the meteor and Dave's body heat made staying underneath near unbearable. He'd live to take off his uncomfortably hot shirt, but who knows what his platinum blond friend would try doing. "You were being pushy," is the only response he can come up with to Dave's short speech. Making excuses could be about one of the worst things to do now.

How lame would it be to say one of the thoughts that had run through his head while asleep? Hating change, the whole deal, they were all hot teenaged emotions pulsing out. A cool guy like Dave doesn't seem likely to do that kind of stuff, he's not likely to get it. Then again, he's also not likely to kiss his best bro repeatedly. He managed that much already, so who knows what might happen?

And here we go again with the "you don't know me and you don't know him. " Dave's pattern changes, his fingers softly rubbing small circles around the nubs he calls horns. Every breath from his throat carries a trembling purr. What a refreshing distraction. The horns themselves are just masses of bone and cartilage, but the skin around the bases has just as many nerve endings as any other place. It's a funny place on a troll for circles to new rubbed in to one's skin, but not for the Knight of Time. Did he pick up the awkward technique when he was with Terezi? Karkat guides the fingers to a more sensitive place, the back of his neck, which causes Dave to pull him closer.

Two noses bump together affectionately and Dave turns his head to the side, pressing his lips into Karkat's yet again. He's lost count of how many times he's done it now. A "fuck ton" could be an accurate measurement. "Y'know I wasn't being pushy back there, that was concern. You don't want a bro who watches out I get it. Just please leave fragile feelings me out of it." He's doing the Neverland, never changing, not for now. Some Strider sass melded with concern does wonders for one's mental health. A few kisses never hurt anyone either.

* * *

***apologizes for a short chapter* I'm the biggest virgin of all virgins someone needs to come mack on me so I can write good romance stuff.**


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